Navigating the Shadow World: The Unofficial Guide to Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments (1) - Softcover

Spencer, Liv

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770411658 ISBN 13: 9781770411654

Publisher: ECW Press, 2013

Synopsis

An insightful and clever companion to the urban fantasy phenomenon, now a Freeform TV series Shadowhunters

Navigating the Shadow Worldtakes readers deep into the rich universe of Cassandra Clare’s New York Times–bestselling Shadowhunter Chronicles. With intelligent but accessible explorations of each volume of the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series, Liv Spencer delivers the next best thing to a Shadowhunter’s Codex with commentary on the books as well as the references to folklore, legends, and literature. Spencer also recounts Cassandra Clare’s journey, from journalist and fan fiction writer to superstar author; explores the cast and crew who brought the first book to life in the film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones; and delves into the TMI fandom, a passionate community that is anything but mundane.

From the Clave to Chairman Meow, demon pox to dastardly ducks, Navigating the Shadow World is your very own insight rune.

About this title

About the Author

Liv Spencer is the bestselling author of Taylor Swift — Platinum Edition (2013), Rosewood Confidential: The Unofficial Companion to Pretty Little Liars (2012), Love Bites: The Unofficial Saga of Twilight (2010), and The Miranda Cosgrove and iCarly Spectacular! (2010). Find her online at LivSpencer.com; she lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Reviews

A breathlessly enthusiastic tour of Persian-American author Cassandra Clare's popular urban fantasy series, this work delves into the worlds of the Mortal Instruments books and of the upcoming movie. Presented for Clare's fans' delectation are synopses of the books, discussions of the significant factions in the books, as well as discussions of the mythological and other sources Clare draws on; also included are short but detailed biographies for the cast and crew of the movie. The work provides some biographical details, from Clare's days as a plagiarism scandal-plagued fan fiction scribe to best-selling author. Although intended for an existing fan-base, the work is not without its points of interest for people unfamiliar with Clare and her work; the decision to deal with the plagiarism scandal so directly in particular is a bold decision. That said, the book comes across less as a sincere work of affection by genuine fans or scholars of Clare's work and more as 240 pages of blatantly commercial product placement aimed at said fans, a prose trailer for the movie. That said, Spencer brings a slick competence to the effort; other authors of this sort of material would do well to emulate.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Navigating the Shadow World

The Unofficial Guide to Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments

By Liv Spencer

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Liv Spencer
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-77041-165-4

CHAPTER 1

THE CASSANDRA CLARE STORY

Though Cassandra Clare has sold millions of books by spinning fantastic tales that draw from myth and legend, when it comes to actual writing, she is nothing if not a realist. She dismisses moments of golden light inspiration or a romanticized calling. "Inspiration, when it does come, doesn't come from outside of you. It comes from the work that you do, from the process itself," she wrote. She sees writing as a serious commitment, as a series of choices. And it's that hard work and practical dedication that have taken her from a girl who read fantasy novels to a woman who writes them.

Cassie was born Judith Rumelt, July 27, 1973, in Tehran, Iran. She traveled all over the world with her parents, Elizabeth and Richard, and had been a resident of England, France, and Switzerland before she turned 10. As she moved from place to place, sometimes attending school and sometimes being homeschooled, books were her constant companion, and she often found herself dipping into her father's science fiction and fantasy books, though she read in a variety of genres. She was introduced to oral storytelling by her father, who found ways to make stories part of daily life. Cassie recalled, "My father was a great storyteller and he used to be able to bribe me to do whatever he wanted — finish my homework, do the laundry — with stories. It made me realize the great motivational power of fiction!"

She described her younger self as "really, really quiet, which is always a shocker for people who know me now." She elaborated, "I was the quiet kid in the corner, reading a book. In elementary school, I read so much and so often during class that I was actually forbidden from reading books during school hours by my teachers. I've always thought that was something of a counterproductive measure. I mean, shouldn't you want kids to read? Admittedly maybe not during biology class." At age 12, when she got her first computer, she started writing books, experimenting in various genres: "I wrote a terrible vampire novel and a terrible mystery novel and a terrible romance novel and a terrible Arthurian novel," she said.

When Cassie was in high school, the family settled in L.A., where she kept reading and writing. At age 15, to entertain her friends, she even wrote a thousand-page novel called The Beautiful Cassandra, based on the Jane Austen story of the same name. (That story eventually gave her part of her pen name; her adopted last name is her grandmother's middle name, as well as the county in Ireland she came from. Clary's name was also a tribute to the courageous, quick-tempered Irishwoman.) "One of the great joys of being so young and writing for fun is the lack of pressure and the freedom to write whatever you want," said Cassie. She credits a dedicated creative writing class as a huge boost to her development, noting, "It allowed for a lot of personal attention being paid to each student's work and a lot of critique."

Cassandra took more writing classes in college, but they didn't have the same impact, and while she still loved writing, she assumed she wasn't cut out to write fiction. She became a journalist instead, writing for various tabloids and entertainment magazines. She didn't love the subject matter or the hours though, and she found her mind drifting back toward fiction.

Needing a creative outlet after her day job, she returned to the fictional worlds she loved and wrote fan fiction u

Edition details

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770411658
• ISBN 13: 9781770411654
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240